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I posted this last year but as the point of Remembrance Day is not only about remembering the sacrifices made but also the reason such wars should never be repeated, I thought it was worth a rerun:

At 11am on Remembrance Day many of us paused for a minute to remember those whose lives were lost in war. While I consider this a noble and worthy gesture I think it important that we also remember the reasons these people died, especially when many of those deaths were unnecessary and avoidable.

In three recent elections, centre-left parties have either been defeated (Australia, Norway) or have failed to achieve government (Germany). In two of these cases, it's a major setback because for Norway and Australia, the social acquisition of public resource wealth is being taken away.

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to apologise for recent comments I have made in relation to you and our newly elected government. I have in the past referred to you and your party as lazy, dishonest, arrogant, negative, opportunist, cynical, manipulative, divisive, mean-spirited, ignorant, boorish, compassionless, mysogynistic, homophobic, short sighted, reffo-bashing, borderline psychotic, anti-worker, Murdoch kowtowing, God bothering, climate change denying, socially regressive, economically illiterate, policy light weights.

Meet Chris Ellison. He's the latest billionaire mining magnate out of WA to start whinging to the media about how much he has to pay his employees.

According to Ellison, who is 88th on the BRW rich list, workers have had it too good in Australia for too long and have developed a sense of entitlement due to union regulations and first world wages.

Ellison claims his employees are working at 55% of capacity despite the fact that his company, Mineral Resources, increased in value last year by 15%.

Australia needs Tony.

Australia has forgotten its limitations, attempted to become a leader instead of a follower and has developed the dangerous notion that prosperity should benefit more than just the most privileged people in his country.

Who better to lead us back to our proper place in the world than the master of mediocrity, the Steven Bradbury of the polls, the captain of the Carlton Football club of the Australian political league, Anthony John Abbott?

Those who raise the issue of WMDs in Iraq (or the incubator babies of the first Gulf War, or the second Tonkin Gulf incident) need to have another look at the images. This is primae facie evidence. There was never WMDs in Iraq. There were no incubator babies in Kuwait. But it should be abundantly clear, from the images and the medical reports, that civilians have been killed from poison gas attacks.

Presentation to the Humanist Society of Victoria, August 22nd, 2013

Abstract

Over at the interesting blog Global Vision remixed by a new citizen of Melbourne (but clearly a well travelled global citizen), I enjoyed the recent post titled Politics in the 21st century and the art of doing nothing by talking a lot – from leadership to amateur theatre.

Presentation to the 4D Conference, University of Western Sydney, July 2013

Abstract

It is disheartening to watch the panic of the Obama administration as it attempts to have it both ways. It has spent the last week shrugging off Edward Snowden as a mere sellout with only middling access to privileged information, all the while moving heaven and earth to retrieve him. This reaction is not useful to any serious narrative. It gives credence to the notion that Snowden is a spy-for-hire, just looking for a safe haven long enough to unload his cargo of mid-level bureaucratic secrets.